Congratulations to MDUSD's 2025-26 Teachers of the Year!

The Mt. Diablo Unified School District is pleased to shine a light on our two 2025-26 District Teachers of the Year:  Mt. Diablo HS teacher Dr. David Pintado and Silverwood Elementary teacher Elizabeth Swanson! The two were selected from more than 200 outstanding educators from TK through grade 12 and adult education who were nominated and offered the opportunity to submit a brief questionnaire.

The questionnaires were scored by members of the MDUSD Teacher of the Year Selection Committee and the top-scoring individuals were interviewed. The MDUSD School Board plans to recognize the District Teachers of the Year, along with nominees and finalists, at its Wednesday, March 12th meeting. Pintado and Swanson will now advance to the Contra Costa County Teacher of the Year competition, which will name four finalists in the spring and two County Teachers of the Year in September.

Both Pintado and Swanson said they were pleased to be able to bring more attention to their programs as a result of this honor. They are both passionate educators who build strong relationships with their students and who enjoy working collaboratively with other staff members at their schools to meet students' needs, as well as with teacher leaders regionally and throughout the state to share teaching strategies and best practices. 

They represent the spectrum of learning in MDUSD, from the littlest learners in TK to high school students ready to graduate and move onto college and careers.

Pintado teaches the Career Technical Education (CTE) Patient Care Pathway courses at Mt. Diablo HS, where he enjoys introducing students to healthcare careers in classes where they can earn college credit and valuable skills including CPR and Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) through partnerships with Diablo Valley College (DVC) and the city of Concord. 

Swanson teaches Transitional Kindergarten (TK) at Silverwood, where she stresses the importance of joyful learning through play, working closely with her instructional assistant to build students' literacy, math and social and emotional skills with playful activities and interactions both in the classroom and on the playground. 

David Pintado

Pintado, 60, is a family practice medical doctor licensed in Mexico, who practiced medicine for 28 years and also taught nursing and public health in universities in Mexico for 20 years. He then relocated to the U.S. and became a Career Technical Education (CTE) health career teacher based on his extensive experience, as well as his Master's and PhD degrees. He began teaching medical assisting to adults at Heald College, then was hired as a health sciences teacher in West Contra Costa Unified, where he worked for one year before coming to Mt. Diablo HS in 2016 and teaching courses in the Medical and Biotechnology Academy, which have now transitioned to the Patient Care pathway. In addition, he is a health sciences adjunct professor at Diablo Valley College (DVC), coaches tennis at MDHS, teaches sports medicine and advises the sports medicine club that helps athletes at games, and mentors students in the HOSA Future Health Professionals organization. He also operates an East Bay CPR first aid training center business, where he employs MDHS students as interns.

"This is my second home," Pintado said, during a break in his classroom, which includes a separate training center for CPR, first aid and basic life support authorized by the American Heart Association and the Health Safety Institute for emergency response certification. "I have created opportunities for students. I like to teach because we can create change in the youth and change in how we approach conflicts and health and safety hazards. We can change the way we do things. That's what motivates me to keep doing this, because I see the results. I like to teach health because I want to teach the future generations to take care of our health. When I'm in my 70s and 80s, they are going to be the nurses and the doctors, and I want to be sure they are taught properly."

His two-year Patient Care pathway includes an introductory medical science and terminology course, for which students with a B or higher earn 3 college credits, and an Emergency Medical Response class, for which students with a B or higher earn 4 college credits. He also teaches dual enrollment college level courses in public health and introduction to healthcare careers, in which students earn 3 college credits for each course. 

After taking a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training course in Concord, which teaches volunteers to assist in medical rescue operations, including light search and rescue for victims in collapsed buildings and using a fire extinguisher in an emergency, he decided he wanted to bring this valuable training to his students. "They were doing a lot of very cool things," he said. "After you finish 25 hours in a classroom course, you spend a full day in an emergency response drill. I said, 'This should be taught in schools.'"

He worked with the city of Concord to embed the training in his Emergency Medical Responder (EMR) class in 2020 and it later expanded to Ygnacio Valley HS. Now, he and his students are advocating to bring it to all MDUSD high schools to train staff as well as students in emergency response using an Incident Command structure. At the Feb. 12 Board meeting, he and students Sofia Carerra and Belen Lopez, wearing their CERT vests, talked about the benefits of the training to help District schools be better prepared for emergencies.  

Sofia, who is an intern in Pintado's company and enrolled in his career pathway, said she is grateful for Pintado's mentorship. "He is a really great teacher," she said. "He's really passionate about what he does and he really cares about students. He finds us internships and volunteer opportunities to help us get experience. There are so many different careers in the medical pathway. He gives you these options. He opens the door. I don't know what my future would look like if I hadn't met him. I've grown to love the medical field and now I for sure know that I want to go into the medical field because of the great experiences I've had in his classes and interning for his company. I think it's great that he's giving his students these opportunities to succeed."  

Heather Fontanilla, MDUSD's Director of College and Career Readiness, said the District is lucky to have Pintado as a Career Technical Education teacher. "He is passionate about preparing students for college and career," he said. "He makes his classes come alive by connecting his curriculum to skills that are used in the workplace. This is reinforced through the many meaningful work based learning experiences he supports in his classes, such as a field trip to Stanford Medical School or a field trip to John Muir Hospital." And as medical doctor and local business owner, she said Pintado also serves on District CTE advisory committees. "He truly works to ensure all students graduate college and career ready!"

Elizabeth Swanson

Swanson, 55, has taught for 35 years, starting at Rio Vista Elementary in Bay Point, then moving to Silverwood Elementary in Concord, where she has taught Kindergarten, and for the past 11 years, Transitional Kindergarten. "I adore it," she said Monday, as she guided children in play-based learning. "I like being able to be child-centered—focused on them and seeing what they need and making lessons that meet their needs." 

Swanson's Instructional Assistant Nancy Espino, whose daughter had Swanson as her TK teacher several years ago, nominated her for Teacher of the Year. “I learned so much from the way she taught,” Espino said, adding that her 4-year-old daughter began learning to read and learning strategies that would help her succeed in kindergarten. "She is the most patient teacher I have ever seen with little children. She's a wonderful teacher that you can trust and she looks out for all kids. She's someone you definitely want your children to start with." 

Swanson is keenly aware that she is setting the stage for each child's educational journey, so she works to ensure her students find joy in coming to school, are willing to take risks, and are building both academic and social and emotional skills in her classroom. She speaks slowly, emphasizing academic words in her conversations with students. As they learned to add, she asked them to write equations, praising them often. Instead of telling them what to do, she encourages them with questions, such as, "Can I suggest something to you?" She collaborates with Espino so that she can work individually or in small groups with some children. She incorporates music, meditation and "cool down time" in her classroom, with a special quiet space where students who become upset or overwhelmed can learn to self-regulate and self-soothe. She encourages students to "take a breath" to feel better and sits with them in a circle on a colorful carpet, where they say: "I'm strong. I can do hard things. I'm powerful." 

To ensure that her students are able to move around and socialize with each other, she gives them plenty of time on the playground and in the classroom's different play areas. "Children need to get out of their chairs," she said, adding that she incorporates three kinds of play into their day: teacher-facilitated, child-centered, and collaborative. She leads teacher facilitated activities, such as identifying letters and matching them to sounds. And she collaborates with students when they work at tables on math, writing and drawing skills. But she said her favorite time of the day is the child-centered play, where students choose between a variety of fun activities, learning as they play and interact with each other. "It's essential," she said, adding that they are learning how to solve problems and use social language. 

She also shares her knowledge with parents through events such as a literacy night she hosted on Wednesday. "Family connection is very important to me," she said. Holly Scudero, whose 7th grade son started school in Swanson's TK class, said her teaching was transformative. "Almost immediately after starting TK he was able to communicate his needs better, share his feelings in a calm way, and ‘slide off’ any bad feelings he was having," Scudero said. "Not only has he taken these skills with him as he has grown, but we learned along with him better ways to communicate as parents. Our family still uses her phrase ‘small potatoes’ to describe a small problem that we can solve right away. Her passion for quality early childhood education and learning through play is seamlessly woven throughout the day and my son was excited to go to school everyday. We were honored to be a part of her magical TK experience and are thrilled that she is being recognized for the hard work and dedication she has brought to her field."

Swanson is highly regarded as a leader, mentor and TK expert in the district and county. "Her love for teaching shines through in her classroom, where she creates a warm, engaging, and inspiring learning environment," said Kimberly Anderson, who brings new teachers to Swanson's classroom twice a year to observe as part of the District's Teacher Induction and Support Program. "She is creative, kind, and passionate, making a lasting impact on both her students and colleagues...Our program has identified her as a 'Spotlight Teacher' because of her exemplary practices, high engagement and learning, with a focus on equity. These teachers leave feeling inspired and eager to implement her effective strategies."

Silverwood Principal Bruce Burns said Swanson is the kind of educator who not only cultivates a love of learning for her students, but also elevates the entire teaching community. "Her dedication to early childhood education, deep expertise in Transitional Kindergarten, and commitment to student success make her an inspiration to all who have learned from her—whether they are young children in her classroom, fellow educators, or parents seeking to improve how to connect, support, and educate students," he said. "She doesn’t just teach; she nurtures, innovates, and leads, ensuring that every child and every teacher she works with is set up for success."